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Contra Sirico (Part 2 of 3)

In the last section of Part 1, I talked a bit about some of the sociological conditions that may have shaped the turn to libertarian thought. What I want to do now is shift our focus more directly to the major lights leading and legitimating that turn. Garry Wills’ devastating Bush’s Fringe Government (New York Review of Books, 2006) is pertinent in this sense. Wills names names: Novak, Weigel, Fessio, and (especially) Neuhaus. With an eye to the current question of libertarian thought in particular I would also add the name of Robert Sirico, the influential head of the Acton Institute and a Paulist Priest. The mission of Sirico’s Institute is a fusion of neoliberal political thought – Sirico is a member of the neoliberal Mount Pelerin Society among many other things – and Catholic teachings. Daniel Finn has gone after Sirico ably and with good reason, rightly calling his arguments “tendentious” and attacking his interpretation of liberty as “heresy.” My approach here is different, and my conclusion is perhaps even less generous.

To be sure, a crucial aspect of the neoliberal/libertarian self-understanding involves an attack on Marx and socialism; this is an approach that goes back at least as far as Hayek’s polemic The Road to Serfdom, and in this sense Sirico's topic and tone are typical. The sad reality of Sirico’s position, however, is a series of assertions that would barely muster a passing grade in an introductory course on political ideologies. One can assume that despite his distortions, Hayek knew what he was talking about. Can the same be said of Sirico? I'll report; you decide.

The arguments in question appear in the online magazine Crisis. They appear in a piece entitled (without a great deal of subtlety) “The Great Lie: Pope Benedict XVI On Socialism” (June 01, 2012). According to Sirico’s reading, the encyclical Spe Salvi is not merely a treatise on a primary Christian virtue (namely hope), but quite timely indeed as a critique of socialism (more generally) and Marx and Marxism (more specifically). Benedict’s encyclical is evidence, we are told, that the pope “has discerned the essential problem that has evaded vast numbers of academics for 100 years.” Vast numbers? Well that sounds impressive enough. And what might that “essential problem” be? More on that shortly. First, let’s take a moment to fully understand why a papal critique of socialism is necessary. Sirico here is worth quoting at length:

… he has done this in a time when socialism as an ideology seems to have been unfazed by the collapse of the communist experiment. Visit the philosophy and English departments on most college campuses, and you will still find intellectuals waxing eloquent on the glories of socialist theory. Students are still encouraged to imagine that it could work.

He continues:

What about the Soviet Union? We are told that this wasn’t really socialism. And what about Nazism–the German word for national socialism? Oh, that’s not socialism either. What about the growing impoverishment in once-rich countries with social democratic governments? The failure of micro-socialism in the United States, where entire communities have lived on government subsidies and are plagued with frightening levels of social pathology? They say that this is not socialism either.

So far as I can tell, Sirico’s position here is made up of three interrelated assertions. Let me try to summarize them: first, “socialist ideology” is a singular and coherent thing, and it encompasses a wide variety of positions from the left to the right (and including, apparently, Nazi Germany). Second, liberal arts professors in particular are responsible for perpetuating the myth that socialism might work. Third, their perpetuation of that myth requires a kind of selective blindness and perhaps active deception, both as to the pervasive danger of socialism and to the damage it has caused.

Sirico’s second and third assertions are built upon the foundation of the first, so let’s examine that one. To begin: the history of socialism (just like liberalism’s history) is a fractured thing. A major fault line was already apparent in Marx’s day, one that was resolved only by means of a radical split realized especially in the Russian Revolution: on one side were those advocates of gradual, constitutional change while on the other were those in favor of immediate revolutionary change. The term (democratic) “socialism” refers to the former camp, the reformers and constitutionalists, while the Leninist bolshevism of the latter is usually called communism. It feels painfully obvious to make this point, but this difference matters for reasons I will address in Part 3.

Comments

Daniel Finn has gone after Sirico ably and with good reason, rightly calling his arguments “tendentious” and attacking his interpretation of liberty as “heresy."

Mr. Geroux--

2 questions. Do you see any contradiction in the sentence above? Your bio describes you as an independent scholar--can you explain what is meant by "independent"?

I gather you are not enamored with the thinking of Father Sirico. I am looking forward to the reasons you will provide in Part 3, as there seem to be quite few offered in Parts 1 and 2. Now I know how professors feel when they turn to the last page of a term paper, hoping all shall be revealed.

Thanks for the response (as you might imagine, I do see a contradiction). Of couse, I see a contradiction in the notion that a scholar without university affiliation would be considered independent--I would expect they would be most especially dependent (on someone)!

In Western culture the tradition of scholars who are unaffiliated with universities is quite strong. I mean by that when the work of such scholars is seen to be competent, they are taken seriously by university scholars. For intance, two of the most influenced modern Europe philosophers were Descartes and Hume. Neither were college professors though they did philosophical research and highly original thinking which they published. Even in the middle ages some scholars worked for themselves -- they tutored and lectured. Abelard is a great example. He even had his own school. There is also the philosopher Claire Ortez-Hill, one of the best authorities on the phenomenologists, who is an anchorite attached to a convent in Paris. (Now I'm going to brag: there is my brother, the shepherd whom I've mentioned before, who does his biological research using his computers, and regularly delivers papers around the world.)

In the good old days it wasn't unusual for people (even some women) of independent means to use their time pursuing their intellectual and even scientiic interests. This was the ideal life according to the ancient Greeks. That tradition, unfortunately, no longer flourishes.

With the weakening support for universities in the U.S. there are more and more young scholars who never get jobs in universities, but I don't doubt that some will continue with their research as time allows.

Thanks for the background, that’s very interesting. And I had no idea your brother is a shepherd (?!).

Abe—

Then you would be wrong—every second. Do not assume that everyone on this blog is immersed in the jargon of academe. I had figured an independent scholar was, if anything, like an independent voter, that is, “non-partisan” (though Rush Limbaugh now seems to call them low information voters, which is an interesting take). I’ve also seen the descriptor “independent” applied to journalism/magazines, though it’s never been clearly explained what/whom these outfits are not dependent on, exactly.

Regardless, I congratulate Robert on his newfound dependency! (I take it to be a good thing)

Some neocons love to equate "Socialism" with Marxism-Leninsim, which is a discredited and dead ideology; it saves them a lot of trouble defining it. Socialism in practice is different. Some so-called socialist countries, e.g., Scandinavia, maybe France, the U.K., Canada, are doing quite well. I think Jesus would prefer an economic system that eliminates or reduces the extremes of great wealth and abject poverty, so that most, if not all of the people have the necessities of life and can lead a fully human existence. Needless to say, we don't all need, or deserve, the same material wealth. However, as a spokesperson for the "Nuns on the Bus" (i.e., Network) once said: "Capitalism is a great system....if you have money."